1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable information terminal such as a pager, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or a cellular phone.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pagers which come into widespread use at present are designed to receive not only xe2x80x9cpersonal messagesxe2x80x9d communicated between individuals, but also xe2x80x9cinformation messagesxe2x80x9d such as information on news, weather forecast, etc. which are transmitted from the base station of the pagers. Further, each of these pagers is equipped with not only a function of selecting and displaying a message, but also various additional functions of setting a display time, selecting a call-reception notifying sound, etc.
Therefore, a conventional pager is designed in a compact size as shown in FIG. 12 to be equipped with a display screen 2 comprising a liquid crystal display or the like on the surface of a housing 1 of the pager, and also with a jog dial 3 as an operating unit for selecting a message or selecting an additional function.
The jog dial 3 functions as an up-down key by rotating a dial knob thereof, and also functions as a non-lock type enter key by pressing it in a radial direction. An escape key 4 provided to the knob portion of the jog dial 3 has a cancel function which means that the processing is returned to the stage just before the enter key is manipulated.
According to the pager shown in FIG. 12, an additional function selecting frame or a necessary message can be displayed on the display screen 2 by manipulating the jog dial 3 and the escape key 4. Accordingly, a very simple operating environment can be achieved and its operability is excellent.
Recently, a bi-directional pager which can send a transmission message has been supplied. This bi-directional pager needs a character input unit for inputting a transmission message and a display space for displaying the message input by the character input unit.
When the conventional pager as shown in FIG. 12 is designed to have the same function as the bi-directional pager, character input keys must be arranged on the same surface as the display screen 2 so as to positionally avoid the display screen 2.
However, when the pager itself is designed in small size and the character input keys are provided, the display screen 2 must be designed in very small size.
Further, since the space in which the character input keys are arranged is very small and the size of each character input key cannot be set to a very small value in consideration of the operability of the character input keys, it is difficult to mount a so-called full keyboard equipped with all the keys containing all alphabetical keys and all Hiragana characters.
There may be considered a method of successively displaying a character candidate to be input on the display screen by manipulating the jog dial 3 and determining the character to be input. However, a character selecting operation of selecting each desired character while successively displaying a character candidate is very cumbersome, and the operability is very bad particularly when a transmission message is created.
Therefore, a bi-directional pager having such a structure as shown in FIG. 13 has been proposed. According to the structure of this bi-directional pager, the housing of the pager is divided into an upper half portion 5 and a lower half portion 6 so that the upper half portion 5 can be opened around the rotational axis extending along a joint portion 7 between the upper and lower half portions as if a book is opened. In addition, a full keyboard 8 is provided on the lower half portion 6, and a display screen 9 of a liquid crystal display is provided on the upper half portion 5.
In the case of the pager having the structure shown in FIG. 13, it is required to carry out an opening work of upwardly lifting the upper half portion 5 around the hinge portion 7 with respect to the lower half portion 6 and then operate the full keyboard 8 not only when a transmission message is input, but also when a reception message is merely displayed on the display screen 9 or various additional functions are displayed and set on the display screen 9. Therefore, the excellent operability of a conventional receive-only pager as shown in FIG. 12 which is exclusively used for reception is lost.
The present invention has been implemented in view of the above circumstances, and has an object to provide a portable information terminal which is suitably used as a bi-directional pager with keeping the same level as the excellent operability of the receive-only pager.
In order to attain the above object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a portable information terminal including: an upper half portion having a display screen comprising a display device at one surface side thereof; a lower half portion including an input key array of plural input keys arranged on one surface thereof and a controller which is provided in the lower half portion, analyzes an operating instruction input through the input keys and carries out the control processing corresponding to an analysis result to reflect the analysis result to the display content of the display screen; and a joint unit for joining the respective one end sides of the upper and lower half portions to each other so that the upper and lower half portions are rotatable around the joint unit and each of a surface of the upper half portion on which the display screen of the upper half portion is disposed (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cscreen-arranged surfacexe2x80x9d) and the opposite surface of the upper half portion to the screen-arranged surface can face a surface side of the lower half portion on which the plural input keys of the lower half portion are disposed (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9ckey-arranged surfacexe2x80x9d).
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the portable information terminal according to the first aspect further includes a detector for detecting whether the rotational state of the upper half portion is a first state under which the display screen of the upper half portion faces the key-arranged surface side on which the plural input keys of the lower half portion are disposed or a second state under which the display screen of the upper half portion faces the opposite side to the key-arranged surface side when the upper half portion is rotated, wherein the controller of the lower half portion rotates display images on the display screen by 180 degrees according to the detection result by the detector.
In the case where the portable information terminal of the present invention is applied to the bi-directional pager as described above, when a transmission message is created, the portable information terminal is used while the upper half portion is rotated around the first rotational axis with respect to the lower half portion as shown in FIG. 2 from the initial state in which the key-arranged surface of the lower half portion is confronted to (overlapped with) the display-arranged surface of the upper half portion on which the display screen is disposed, thereby opening the portable information terminal.
Under this state, the input operation of a transmission message can be carried out by using input keys on a full keyboard or the like disposed at the lower half portion side.
In a normal using state that the bi-directional pager is used to display a reception message or display/set additional functions, the upper half portion is rotated around the second rotational axis with respect to the lower half portion by 180 degrees, and then overlaid on the lower half portion. Under this state, the using state of the portable information terminal is, as shown in FIG. 5 described later, perfectly identical to that of the conventional pager having the housing which is not divided into the upper half portion and the lower half portion as shown in FIG. 12.
By manipulating the operating portion provided at the side surface portion of the lower half portion, the selection of a reception message and the display/setting of additional functions can be carried out in the same manner as the conventional pager.